Why “We’ve Always Done It This Way” Is One of the Most Dangerous Phrases in the Nightlife Industry

The nightlife industry is suffering from a lack of innovation.

This doesn’t mean clubs aren’t coming up with new themes and concepts. Many venues are incredibly creative with their use of light, sound, and overall themes. However, the core format, processes, and staff training in nightlife haven’t evolved to meet the expectations of a new demographic.

Today’s generation desires both personalisation and novelty, yet innovations that could provide these are not being adopted in the nightlife sector.

Why not?

We believe there are two main things going on here:

The nuances of running a nightclubs make them harder to innovate for.

First, there are fundamental differences between nightclubs and other hospitality sectors like hotels and restaurants that make them harder to innovate for.?

For instance, restaurants control the entire customer experience, whereas nightclubs rely on intermediaries such as promoters, security, door staff, and booth hosts.

In restaurants, guests are seated throughout their visit, allowing staff to monitor activities and performance more effectively. Bills are settled at the end of the meal, reducing the risk of walkouts.

In contrast, nightclubs often require payments for each bottle upfront due to high bottle prices served in a loud and chaotic environment, making it harder to control customer relationships and experiences.

Club operators seem to reject innovation.

Second, and perhaps more pressingly, clubs seem less open to innovation. This could be due to the lack of formal education and training pathways available to other hospitality sectors, like those Michelin-star chefs and five-star hotels have access to. Alternatively, it might be a reluctance to move away from processes which used to work.

But by accepting sub-standard training, processes and emerging tech, clubs stall innovation, missing out on new revenue opportunities and failing to differentiate themselves from competitors.

With the UK losing a club every weekend and other global cities following suit, the phrase “this is the way we’ve always done it” becomes especially dangerous.

Is there some good news?

Yep! The bar for outperforming competitors has never been lower. By making a few small changes, clubs can seize new profit opportunities and better tailor every element of their expeirnce for the expectations of today’s customer.

About DQ

DQ is a VIP consultancy that works with booth-centric venues. Our customers are large venues who recognise that the gaps between booking forms, POS and radio leave money on the table and reduce conversion rates.

We have built our proven steps into a playbook that helps venues design their operations from booking & table guest-list optimisation. Many of these now regularly boast >30% upsell rates and 2 minute order turnarounds.

Visit our website for a demo, to see our playbook, or to learn more.